By: Jean Christophe Le Coze.
Safety Science Research. Evolution, Challenges and New Directions is a book combining the insights of two generations of writers who are for the first time put together. From a research point of view, our understanding of safety depends on the way research traditions developed in the 1980s and 1990s. These traditions are rooted in networks of researchers and their backgrounds among which feature prominently, but not only, psychology, cognitive psychology, social-psychology, management, sociology and political science. Concepts such as safety culture, high-reliability organisation, resilience engineering or safety regulation are some of the most visible products of these research traditions’ developments.
The book, which follows a workshop held in 2017, wishes to explore ideas within, across and beyond such research traditions to offer a broad view of current issues and developments which translate some contemporary empirical, conceptual, practical and critical research in the field at the end of the 2010s. Thus, a diversity of topics are addressed by the authors of the chapters which can be articulated in a narrative that I borrow from the introduction of the book.
In the past two decades, it has become more important in safety research to consider the issue of power (chapter of Antonsen, Almklov) now transformed by the new configuration of global actors and institutions which currently shape the landscape of high-risk systems, also creating new challenges for safety regulations (chapter of Engen, LindØe). But these increasingly global and networked activities of high-risk systems across continents also require for safety management concepts and tools, such as safety culture, to be adapted to the different national contexts where they are used (chapter of Reader). Moreover, propelled by digitalisation and standardisation among other drivers (e.g. financialisation), these globalised processes create new resources, constraints and problems for safety practices, including a new phase of standardising work (chapter of Almklov, Antonsen) and new environments shaping the sense-making of sharp end actors (chapter of Haavik).
Considering the extent, speed and disruptive realities behind these reconfigurations of high-risk systems, epistemic accidents (chapter of Downer) might be lurking around the corner more than ever but might also be creating multiple opportunities for global drift, creating a path for disasters (chapter of Pettersen, Fjaeran). Building the capabilities for learning from major events (chapter of Hayes) is and will remain therefore of great importance, an approach also valuable to improve our understanding of the network properties of current safety critical organisations but also complex projects for which adapted safety practices and models need further developments than are available today (chapter of Gotcheva, Aaltonen, Kujala).
This, more generally, is about the ability of safety research to connect its outcomes and results (e.g. knowledge, tools) to practitioners’ needs (chapter of Shorrock). However, the ideal of a research which is adequately linked to practices (and the other way around) is surely not a straightforward process, requiring translation (chapter of Reiman, Viitanem) with cases of unintended effects of the introduction of safety models which have to be acknowledged and perhaps better anticipated when it comes to regulations (chapter of Bergstrom) or professions (chapter of Waring and Bishop). Keeping the big picture in mind, from power, through standardisation to unintended effects of safety research (among other challenges), within, across and beyond existing traditions, for the safety management of high-risk systems, might be supported in the future by visualisations powerful enough to replace the most iconic ones in the field (chapter of Le Coze). This short and simple narrative is not meant to be a closure. It is one among many other possibilities.
These chapters are followed in the book by the reflections of some of the pioneers of the field who have been the developers, along with other writers, of enduring research traditions: Rhona Flin, Erik Hollnagel, Nick Pidgeon, Karlene Roberts, Paul Schulman, Karl Weick and Ron Westrum. It is truly a privilege and honour to have them comment and reflect on the chapters. It brings an invaluable perspective to this exploration of the evolution, challenges and new directions in safety.